New Delhi. 22 February 2018. It was an official stamp on the rumours which had been floating from the corridors of power in Delhi. The Prime Minister during the inaugural address of Uttar Pradesh Investors Summit 2018 at Lucknow yesterday announced that a Defence Industrial Corridor will be set up in Uttar Pradesh (UP).
He complimented the Government of Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, for changing the negative atmosphere in the State, to one of positivity and hope. He said the State is making appropriate policies for various sectors and defence is one of them.
A day after Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced the setting up of a defence industrial corridor in Bundelkhand region, Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman informed that a Defence Investors’ Cell will be made under her guidance to ensure speedy development of the corridor. She was addressing the plenary session on ‘Defence and Aerospace : Investment opportunities in Uttar Pradesh’ at Investors Summit- 2018 in Lucknow.
The Minister informed that Uttar Pradesh Defence Industrial Corridor is proposed in a stretch between Aligarh, Agra, Jhansi, Chitrakoot and it also includes Kanpur and Lucknow. The Defence Corridor in UP will leverage the existing ordnance factories and defence PSU establishments in UP.
Highlighting the benefits of the Defence Industrial Corridor Smt Sitharaman stated that Bundelkhand will benefit from the six-lane highway which the UP Government has proposed to build up from Chitrakoot to Jhansi and will provide necessary infrastructural support for investment units in India. She said that the initiatives of Ministry of Defence to promote industry investment in Defence Production will also provide impetus to the Defence Corridor.
She added that the MoD will, apart from taking steps to promote private investment, set up infrastructure for blast testing of arms and ammunition in the proposed corridor.
The Minister stated that the low cost of land and low wage rate with adequate supply of manpower will be an attraction of the UP Defence Industrial Corridor. It will serve as an engine for economic development and growth of regions of UP, especially Bundelkhand region.
On the first day of the UP Investors’ Summit, the state signed 1,045 Memorandums of Understanding (MoU) worth Rs 4.28 lakh crores. Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath said, “It is a matter of pride for the state that fortune-500 companies are participating in the summit. I want to tell you all that till now, we have signed 1,045 MoUs worth Rs 4.28 lakh crore. The amount of the annual budget recently presented by my government was Rs 4.28 lakh crore, and the amount of MOUs signed today is the same. We are heading towards a new Uttar Pradesh.”
